Why Raising your Self-Awareness is Critical to your Success
By Bernadette Sarginson
The first step to any kind of self-change, self-development or self-improvement is raising your self-awareness.
If you aren’t already, or don’t become, aware of aspects of your personality that you’d like to change, then that self-change, self-development or self-improvement may never happen.
Your awareness can be raised through many different circumstances. For instance, there may be a catalyst involved, where another person says or does something that leads you on to realise something about yourself that you didn’t see or acknowledge previously. Or you may see or hear something that triggers a chain of thoughts, leading you to a new understanding.
You might spontaneously get a ‘light-bulb’ moment, possibly when you were least expecting it, when you suddenly get an insight about yourself that was previously unknown. Sometimes it just takes a series of events that appear to be unrelated, but when you look back you can see how they all connected to bring you a new perception.
And finally, some people just naturally develop such a high level of consciousness that they will automatically tend to proactively reflect on their daily experiences and interactions with others so they can learn and grow; and consciously decide, with the benefit of hindsight, whether they might have done things differently to achieve a different outcome, or whether they are comfortable with how things played out.
However you come to raise your self-awareness, it’s important to appreciate 3 Simple Truths on your path to understanding yourself more;
Always recognise the value of being self-aware and use it as a beneficial, positive tool through which you can learn and grow. It might be tempting to reflect on a particular situation that has happened in your past and, whether deliberately or accidentally, to use it as a way of punishing yourself for behaving a certain way or saying a certain thing that, with hindsight, you wished you hadn’t. Be aware that this might happen and commit to yourself that you will only use your reflections positively and to support yourself in your future growth and development. You are a different person to who you were yesterday, last week, last year so always look back and learn about yourself with compassion. You will achieve success (whatever that means for you) when you are in your best state so whatever you discover, use it for good purpose.
Be open, curious and honest with yourself to get the best results. When you are creative and curious about what your hindsight could help you learn, you could discover a plethora of possible interpretations and options for how you could grow and develop, and end up really stretching yourself (in a healthy way) into the process. One of the laws of nature is that you are either growing or dying. So always set the intention that you will stretch and grow from whatever you learn.
Be ready to think differently. Commit to changing any aspect of yourself you discover that isn’t reflective of who you are today. Everyone has habits. Some of those habits are really beneficial and useful such as self-care, appreciation, kindness and compassion. You will also have habits that are less helpful. Not just habits of doing, but habits of thinking and feeling too. Commit to substituting something more empowering whenever you do discover anything that doesn’t support you being your best self.
Raising your self-awareness allows you to connect with who you truly are, gain a higher level of consciousness and always show up as your most authentic self. This in turn allows you to achieve exceptional success because when you are authentic, you shine and you radiate the kind of energy that draws people towards you because you feel good to be around. So when you raise your self-awareness, it impacts positively on everyone around you and gives them permission to shine too.
Bernadette Sarginson
Empowerment Coach & Mentor